Abe has Bush Approval Ratings

clipped from www.time.com Abe promised to make pacifist Japan as a normal nation, one that could defend itself and its allies on the world stage. He bumped up Kyuma's defense office to a Cabinet-level ministry, and set the revision of Japan's pacifist constitution as his signature issue. But Abe's vision of a more muscular Japan has excited few voters, who are more concerned with their pocketbooks, and constitutional revision has barely figured as an issue in July's election. The violent reaction to Kyuma's relatively mild speech — more of an offense against political correctness than history — is a potent reminder that pacifism remains Japan's knee-jerk reaction to anything related to the military, and that domestic sensitivities trump the realities of geopolitics, where nuclear weapons are an unavoidable reality. Abe wanted to change the game of Japanese politics, but the old rules still apply — and so far, he's losing.